I used to listen to home school moms blurt out facts and trivia like it was their job. They would always have a solution (or think they did) to every situation and seem to know where to get this or that or where to locate the best thing-a-ma-jingy. They knew they best books, prices on books and where to shop the best deals.
They made me feel inferior. I remember thinking…”Do you really think you know everything because you homeschool your kid?” I mean come on!! Get a life!
Well, my perspective has changed a bit.
Hold tight and keep reading you HS moms and HS wanna be moms.
I’m in year two of homeschooling. I got a late start and can only hope to be as knowledgable one day as some of those ladies are. We all have our specialties…the things we are really good at and really love and can talk passionately about. For some of us, its just one or two things. For others…its all things education!! Because it IS their job!!
The reason they know the best place to get books is because they have researched for years through all of their kids (some homeschool 6 or more at one time!) . The reason they know how to do Algebra is because they are doing it (again!). The reason they can blurt out science facts is because they just helped their kiddo with a biology lab. They know history facts because they learned in it school, lived some of it and then relearned it again and again with each child as they worked through American, European and World History year after year. They did book reports with them, taught them how to find resources and came along side of them to teach them how to write a proper paper with Introduction, body, and conclusion.
When Hatcher does a report on the Mayans or the Mississippi River…guess who learns too! Yep, me. Whether I want to or not. I have learned so many new vocabulary words this year and even caught myself using them at a recent retreat I went on. I was so impressed with myself but when I looked around, no one else seemed to be. That’s okay, I can have little parties for myself in my head.
Some of this stuff, like other moms, I just don’t know and don’t feel like I can help. I know many mommas that feel this way and it possibly keeps them from even considering homeschooling even though it weighs heavily on their heart. Guess what!?? You can!! I have to remind myself that I am an educated college graduate. I can read and search with a google bar. I can learn anything I want!! When Cora needed help in Algebra, I went to YouTube. I didn’t get it right away (it was never my forte even in high school and college) but we hashed it out and she finished the assignment.
Homeschool moms not only get to open up the world for their kids in the way their kids need to see it but they get to expose them to their (parents) own passions too and subjects they would never get to even broach in school.
I was sitting in the car the other day when I decided I should talk about this. I think my mind was on one of Hatcher memory sentences about Babylonians or something and recalled when I used to think Homeschool moms know everything.
It’s because they do!!
They spend hours each day on math, spelling, vocabulary, science, history, bible, and arts…every day for kids of all ages. So they might be teaching the alphabet for the 13th time and they might be explaining how light and sound travel. They might be learning chemistry for the first time and then on the side reading a great biography about someone they didn’t know existed until their 8th grader did a report on him. Since they are often on the internet they might have been intrigued by a speaker and now are doing their own research on something just for them.
I mean, we really don’t know everything! I’m clueless on accounting and such and I don’t mess with wiring. I’m not a math whiz and know very little about aviation (my husbands vocation). I can go on and on actually. However, on the flip side….I just revisited prime and composite numbers and I did a lab on nucleus and atoms. When I help Hatcher study for his vocabulary test I will be armed with even more words to use and when I help Cora with American Literature (more like proofread her papers) and Old Testament Bible I learn about Tom Sawyer, Billy Budd and Judges.
We have the opportunity to learn whatever we want and I try to take everyday situations to teach something more. Hatcher helped build a fire in the wood stove today and Cora is learning to sew. I’m no genius and neither are my kids and I hope to never come off as annoying or a know it all but instead of being irritated with someone who seems to know a lot, be impressed and inspired. I know I am now. When I hear a mom talk about something I have no clue on, I plop out my laptop and start typing.
There is no reason to limit ourselves to anything anymore. You don’t have to be a stay at home mom or a homeschool mom to fill your brain and time with new information. As long as we keep that Netlix subscription at bay we will be okay…ALTHOUGH..I have gotten a lot out of some documentaries!!